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Whether you call it the "Jumping Flea" or "that Hideous Portugese Instrument," I'm sure we all have come to know, if not love, the ukulele. Of course, the best known uke player of recent times was Tiny Tim, though you may also remember performances in certain films. This last contains a very famous song. Converted? Then why not learn to play? Don't have an instrument? Build one for $12.
comment posted at 12:47 PM on Apr-15-03

Her name is Trisha Meili. She was attacked in Central Park fourteen years ago. Now she's written a book (excerpt) telling her story.
comment posted at 8:47 AM on Apr-14-03
comment posted at 2:07 PM on Apr-14-03

Asianart.com is a great site which I've been enjoying lately. The online exhibitions are lovely and the articles are fascinating. They also link to several private galleries. If you like Asian art, spend some time here. [Via plep, who linked to Wood and Transience recently.]
comment posted at 12:26 PM on Apr-10-03

The Roots of a Haunting Song "Billie Holiday's brilliant interpretation of 'Strange Fruit' made the haunting song about Southern lynchings her own. It also helped make the composer, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx, nearly anonymous. But Abel Meeropol (link contains image of lynching) gets his due in a documentary...airing [8 April] as part of PBS' 'Independent Lens' series..." (CNN)
comment posted at 11:29 AM on Apr-8-03

Who needs to coast? With a fixed gear bicycle, you can't. Not to be confused with single-speeds or multi-gear derailers, this minimalist setup is used in track racing, including Japan's Keirin. Messengers and others ride track bikes on the street (sometimes illegally without a brake): the simplicity means there's less to brake or be stolen. Not all fixies are tracks bikes though, with conversions often more focused on utility and comfort than speed. (Perfect for the commute!) They're great in the winter and offroad, too. You can make your own (you just need horizontal dropouts) and then learn some special techniques.
comment posted at 1:28 PM on Apr-7-03

"It's simple. They want water. I have it, as long as they agree to get baptized," he said. [via anil]
comment posted at 11:28 AM on Apr-7-03

Twenty-nine years ago today, a single storm spawned 148 tornadoes across the American Midwest, including twenty-three F4 and six F5 tornadoes. Here are a couple of sites about this incredible storm. If you're feeling a little uneasy after seeing some of these images, maybe you can assuage your fear by boning up on your tornado safety tips; and, as an added bonus, learn how to detect tornadoes using your television.
comment posted at 1:17 PM on Apr-3-03

The Best Band in the Land, a report from the alternate universe wherein musical priorities in the 80s were a little bit different. Complete with a reader's guide. One of many pieces of Old Man Grumpus rock criticism at Exiled on Main Street.
comment posted at 12:10 PM on Apr-2-03
comment posted at 1:01 PM on Apr-2-03

Happy birthday, Kasimir Malevich! The Guggenheim has curated an exhibition (currently in Berlin and coming to New York in May) to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of this Russian avant-garde painter who, among other things, was a major influence on El Lissitzky and worked alongside Liubov Popova. The story of how the show itself came to be -- featuring many works never before seen in the West -- makes for rather dramatic reading, to boot. (NYTimes link; reg. req.) [more inside]
comment posted at 1:47 PM on Mar-31-03

Among Hayao Miyazaki's masterpieces are Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, Princess Mononoke, and, most recently, Spirited Away. With the April 15 US release of Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Laputa: Castle in the Sky, an Academy nomination for Spirited Away, and Disney's commitment to release re-dubbed, re-mastered versions of Miyazaki's films in the US and worldwide, the American public is getting more acquainted with this legend of animation. Miyazaki's films are not your regular anime [more inside...]
comment posted at 5:33 AM on Mar-22-03

Hey! This Is Where They Filmed That Scene Where... It's childish, I know, but I always get a buzz when I come across a place I've seen in a movie. Just as it never feels right when the city I live in turns up in one. Famous Locations is an unpretentious, modestly designed little website which is full of such thrills. For example, I've often stayed at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan - who would have thought it was where Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger hammed it up shamelessly in 9 1/2 Weeks? [More inside.Via LinkFilter.]
comment posted at 10:56 AM on Mar-20-03

Ah, the world cries out for an updated Jonathan website. The Abominable Lesbian Vampire Cappuccino Bar in Cyberspace has withered on the vine, links almost all dead--damn, I should've copied that tab!--but some of the music's not firing blanks. The Jonathan Richman Project only posted one issue of their xerox zine--jeez, remember zines? Mail art? Man, those were the days--but they're nice enough to print Lester Bangs 1976 Creem diss of the Twerp King At The Summit. God, I remember reading that Bangs piece new and running out and buying The Modern Lovers, trusting as I did in his taste or maybe just his gonzo stylings? Little did I know...(inside)
comment posted at 8:32 AM on Jan-28-03
comment posted at 11:31 AM on Jan-28-03

The Home for Life Project, designed by Roger Dean, will appeal to anyone who dreams of living in Hobbiton. The earth sheltered homes are made of gunnite and are simple to construct, and the curvilinear architecture of the interiors is based on Dean's research into the psychological responses to spaces of children. I really want to check one of these out someday. (Previously mentioned here.)
comment posted at 12:45 PM on Jan-27-03

From one of the most underrated performers on the 1960's came one of the most mysterious records of all time, which inspired not only a movie but an answer record from none other than Bob Dylan. Greil Marcus devotes a chunk of a book(ostensibly about Dylan) to "Ode," where he makes connections between it and Bonnie & Clyde, released around the same time. Someone once said that "Ode To Billy Joe" sounded ancient the day it came out and that may be some part of it's appeal. I remeber hearing the song on oldies stations as a kid and even then being drawn into the mystery of it. I listened to it as I typed this post and I'm still plumbing it's depths today.
comment posted at 9:49 AM on Jan-27-03

"The world wide web was supposed to be pistachio". Say that three time fast, then visit the internet database of tongue twisters, shibboleths, and battologisms; over 2,000 frustrating, word-mangling, syntax-slaughtering entries in 90 languages, with translations. Also worth a look: the short list of devious one-liners.
comment posted at 10:32 AM on Jan-15-03

Is there a Moore's Law for roller coasters? Ohio's own Cedar Point has announced it's newest record-breaking roller coaster - the Top Thrill Dragster. Here are the high points (pun intended):

• a 420-foot tower - the first coaster ever to top 400 feet
• top speed of 120mph - in 4 seconds
• a 90-degree turn at the top of the tower and an almost vertical drop back down

Downside - the whole thing lasts a mere 30 seconds. But I bet it's a fun 30 seconds. Can't wait to go.
comment posted at 9:35 AM on Jan-9-03

Another of our industries,one that actually produces something, has started what appears to be a death spiral. This industry survey was used as supporting evidence as they presented their case to the ITC in May, ahead of a report to be submitted to the House Ways and Means Committee this fall. Some of the business owners comments are here. Who benefits? Near as I can tell, This Guy. (Best if read aloud)
comment posted at 11:44 AM on Aug-5-02

Check Out This Librarian There's more to being a librarian than just stamping books and telling people to Shush. The Washington Post has a little Q&A with Jim Gates who has been librarian at the Hall of Fame Library for seven years.
Just in case you think all librarians are little old ladies, you might want to check out This Ad for Mack's Earplugs, it features a lovely librarian, who is also a World Champion Masters Triathelete. Of course, our own Jessamyn has been saying this kind of thing for years now.
After all, The Web Didn't Kill Libraries. It's the New Draw.
Now shush!
comment posted at 7:30 PM on Aug-4-02
comment posted at 7:35 PM on Aug-4-02
comment posted at 7:17 AM on Aug-5-02

sick sad world: what if beetle bailey were at the world trade center when it was attacked. . . (i saw the link at pop culture junk mail, scroll down to july 23)
comment posted at 6:39 PM on Aug-3-02

Bob Dylan Live at Newport, 1965: Maggie’s Farm. 10 MB Quicktime mp3 A notorious and historic moment, that began a legendary year of touring , stolen moments of which are available in several sometimes bootlegged formats .Sometimes, perhaps revised , stories differ at what happened, and, now, post-ironically enough, He appears at Newport again this Saturday.
comment posted at 8:09 AM on Aug-2-02
comment posted at 8:34 AM on Aug-2-02
comment posted at 8:39 AM on Aug-2-02
comment posted at 5:55 AM on Aug-3-02

This would make a very nice birthday present - If anyone wants to buy me the Woodstock Master Tapes, I promise I will burn copies for you and all your friends...
comment posted at 7:02 AM on Aug-2-02

Mob kills men after traffic accident . This story is a little disturbing; it's been on CNN etc., but here in Chicago it's the hourly top story. A van driven by two middle-aged men moving furniture jumped a curb and pinned three girls against a step. In retaliation, a crowd of a dozen or more yanked the men from their van and beat them with fists and even bricks. Both died. The police have fanned out looking for witnesses and evidence, with a few arrests, but no charges as of yet. [more inside]
comment posted at 1:42 PM on Aug-1-02

Who you callin' Schizophrenic??? I'm not crazy damnit! They're pointing their sound beams at me, I swear!
comment posted at 2:14 PM on Aug-1-02

The barbie drug, brown and hard anyone?
comment posted at 9:57 AM on Aug-1-02

A man has a heart attack on commuter train. The train's crew arranges for paramedics to be at an accessible train station. The train makes two more regular stops before said train station! What was this crew thinking? Is the almighty buck more important than a guy's life?
comment posted at 10:08 AM on Aug-1-02

Race/Music: Corrine Corrina, Bo Chatmon, and the Excluded Middle. Bo Carter is not the household name that, say, Robert Johnson is but he first recorded and most likely wrote one of the standards of the 20th Century. The essay linked deals with him, his song and the push me-pull you of race and culture in America. It's a post graduate thesis rife with postmodernist terminology--yet full of ideas and insights, not all of which I necessarily endorse or agree with--but which I've found thought provoking. (Details Within)
comment posted at 7:27 AM on Aug-1-02

Philip Glass, Late Twentieth-Century Music And Your PC, Sort Of... Andante's Carte Blanche is a new multimedia magazine dedicated to contemporary music. Its first guest-editor is Philip Glass and he's assembled an interestingly unscholarly, offbeat and pleasantly accessible issue. At least for those of us who generally pay contemporary music (too) little attention. I wonder why this is, as it's invariably challenging or enlightening when we do. Who knows? Perhaps Carte Blanche may convince some of us pop-obsessed philistines to change our ways... [ Composer John Adams, writer Susan Sontag, choreographer Mark Morris and British director Jonathan Miller will follow in what promises to be an unmissable online proposition.]
comment posted at 8:07 AM on Aug-1-02

Louise Brooks was a Ziegfeld girl, a classic beauty, and later, an actress in really strange films, mostly made in Germanya
comment posted at 1:20 PM on Jul-31-02

"The national security of the United States of America has been hijacked ..." why should'nt we trust what scott ritter has to say - more than bush and his shadowy bunch of cronies?
comment posted at 8:35 AM on Jul-31-02

The Emmy nominations are out and the news nominations go to the biggest story, September 11. No surprises there. PBS has 41 nominations and Fox has 0. No surprises there either. Does this say something about the news industry and it's ability to discern serious news from chaff? Is Bill Moyers a national treasure? Do you think perhaps Murdoch should rethink the direction of his media empire?
comment posted at 7:03 AM on Jul-31-02

One Man's Meat Is Another's Person. There are certain words which evoke powerful images and emotions. One such word is Cannibalism. There is a lot of myth and truth about this nearly universally distained practice. But it has happened in the United States and virtually everywhere, at one time or another. If religion were removed from the equation would cannibalism still be wrong? Is the fear of cannibalism learned or is it a self preservation instinct which might get in the way of self preservation when starving to death? Is it the last taboo?: We eat meat and we are meat.
comment posted at 11:53 AM on Jul-29-02
comment posted at 12:45 PM on Jul-29-02
comment posted at 6:36 AM on Jul-30-02
comment posted at 7:25 PM on Jul-30-02
comment posted at 1:31 PM on Jul-31-02

"Granted, we're a long way from resembling the kind of authoritarian state Orwell depicted, but some of the similarities are starting to get a bit eerie."
comment posted at 1:43 PM on Jul-28-02
comment posted at 4:12 PM on Jul-28-02

To those who have much, more will be given; to those who have little, more will be taken away. The NY Times (mefi/mefi) has uncovered the abuse of an IRS policy - established in 1996, ostensibly to aid widows and orphans - by some of the wealthiest Americans to avoid income and estate taxes altogether. Yet again, only in the land where the individual comes before all else!
comment posted at 3:19 PM on Jul-27-02
comment posted at 3:26 PM on Jul-27-02

did anyone else in the dc area see this? and does this man know something we dont?
comment posted at 1:31 PM on Jul-27-02

I am fat and its your fault Has america really degraded into such a victim society that this is a valid reason to sue?
"They said `100 percent beef.' I thought that meant it was good for you," Barber told Newsday. "I thought the food was OK."
common people, how about getting a clue with that super size.
comment posted at 4:40 PM on Jul-26-02

Maxim Saves Journalism "The reason the notion of Maxim saving journalism is funny is because everyone buys into this holier-than-thou notion that Maxim, because it dares to package itself in an easily digestible format and obsess over the real concerns of real people instead of operating on a higher theoretical plain, is anti-intellectual, maybe even partly responsible for what’s being called the “dumbing down of America.” That’s the squawking canard I’m going to try to chop the head off of today. I’m going to take you behind the titillating eye candy and show you what Maxim really is, and how it’s part of a growing movement already blowing the cobwebs out of a truly ancient and intransigent industry." (via medianews)
comment posted at 12:50 PM on Jul-26-02